Kate Evans

I learn something, it goes in the next book.

I learn something else the year after, that will go in the next book.

So it's not like I have a lifetime's worth of experience that I want to fit in one book.

So in a way, I'm growing up in the Swedish wilderness.

at the same time as Tuva is.

Tuva's a lot younger than I am, but we're both learning how to cope with studded tires on your truck and having enough wood to get you through the winter.

And the elves dancing, that's actually a saying that my wife's grandparents used to say.

I just fell in love with it.

I love language anyway, and I find that Nordic idiom very exotic for me as a Brit.

I can't resist, but put that in the book.

I would have to have Sarah Waters there.

In a similar vein, the way she writes The Little Stranger, which is, again, gothic, based in a big old house.

It's just wonderfully atmospheric.

You can almost smell the kind of musty wallpaper and you can hear the servants' bells ringing in the upstairs rooms.

Likewise with Fingersmith, I like the way she structured her twists.

Just remarkable, isn't it?

She is the master.

I'm so looking forward to her next book.

And I love the way she constructs her sentences.

I love the way she uses language.